Capacitance, property of an electric conductor, or set of conductors, that is measured by the amount of separated electric charge that can be stored on it per unit change in electrical potential. Capacitance also implies an associated storage of electrical energy. If electric charge is transferred between two initially uncharged conductors, both become equally charged, one positively, the other negatively, and a potential difference is established between them. The capacitance C is the ratio of the amount of charge q on either conductor to the potential difference V between the conductors, or simply C = q/V.

In both the practical and the metre–kilogram–second scientific systems, the unit of electric charge is the coulomb and the unit of potential difference is the volt, so that the unit of capacitance—named the farad (symbolized F)—is one coulomb per volt. One farad is an extremely large capacitance. Convenient subdivisions in common use are one-millionth of a farad, called a microfarad (μF), and one-millionth of a microfarad, called a picofarad (pF; older term, micromicrofarad, μμF). In the electrostatic system of units, capacitance has dimensions of distance.

Capacitance in electric circuits is deliberately introduced by a device called a capacitor. It was discovered by the Prussian scientist Ewald Georg von Kleist in 1745 and independently by the Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek at about the same time, while in the process of investigating electrostatic phenomena. They discovered that electricity obtained from an electrostatic machine could be stored for a period of time and then released. The device, which came to be known as the Leyden jar, consisted of a stoppered glass vial or jar filled with water, with a nail piercing the stopper and dipping into the water. By holding the jar in the hand and touching the nail to the conductor of an electrostatic machine, they found that a shock could be obtained from the nail after disconnecting it, by touching it with the free hand. This reaction showed that some of the electricity from the machine had been stored.

A simple but fundamental step in the evolution of the capacitor was taken by the English astronomer John Bevis in 1747 when he replaced the water by metal foil forming a lining on the inside surface of the glass and another covering the outside surface. This form of the capacitor with a conductor projecting from the mouth of the jar and touching the lining had, as its principal physical features, two conductors of extended area kept nearly equally separated by an insulating, or dielectric, layer made as thin as practicable. These features have been retained in every modern form of capacitor.

A capacitor, also called a condenser, is thus essentially a sandwich of two plates of conducting material separated by an insulating material, or dielectric. Its primary function is to store electrical energy. Capacitors differ in the size and geometrical arrangement of the plates and in the kind of dielectric material used. Hence, they have such names as mica, paper, ceramic, air, and electrolytic capacitors. Their capacitance may be fixed or adjustable over a range of values for use in tuning circuits.

The energy stored by a capacitor corresponds to the work performed (by a battery, for example) in creating opposite charges on the two plates at the applied voltage. The amount of charge that can be stored depends on the area of the plates, the spacing between them, the dielectric material in the space, and the applied voltage.

A capacitor incorporated in an alternating-current (AC) circuit is alternately charged and discharged each half cycle. The time available for charging or discharging thus depends on the frequency of the current, and if the time required is greater than the length of the half cycle, the polarization (separation of charge) is not complete. Under such conditions, the dielectric constant appears to be less than that observed in a direct-current circuit and to vary with frequency, becoming lower at higher frequencies. During the alternation of polarity of the plates, the charges must be displaced through the dielectric first in one direction and then in the other, and overcoming the opposition that they encounter leads to a production of heat known as dielectric loss, a characteristic that must be considered when applying capacitors to electrical circuits, such as those in radio and television receivers. Dielectric losses depend on frequency and the dielectric material.

Except for the leakage (usually small) through the dielectric, no current flows through a capacitor when it is subject to a constant voltage. Alternating current will pass readily, however, and is called a displacement current.